Modern Threat Landscape: Staying Left of Boom

Daniel Blackford

Abstract:

It’s easy to get caught up chasing zero-days and CVEs … but when it comes to defending your organization, a strategic understanding of how the threat landscape is evolving may be just as important as the speed of your tactical responses. In this session Proofpoint’s Head of Threat Research, Daniel Blackford, will share actionable, data-driven insights on emerging trends within the cybercrime and espionage ecosystems that can help defenders prioritize posture, response, and maybe even combat alert fatigue.
And since no session in the last two years would be complete without mentioning AI, he’ll also spend some time separating the reality from the hype regarding threat actor usage and targeting of AI-centric technologies.

Daniel Blackford

Dungeon Crawler

Daniel Blackford is an experienced cybersecurity and threat research leader focused on understanding adversary tradecraft and improving organizational resilience against cyber threats. Over the course of his career, he has led threat intelligence and research teams, guided strategic security initiatives, and worked closely with defenders to turn intelligence into real‑world impact. Daniel regularly speaks with technical and executive audiences about the evolving threat landscape, attacker trends, and how organizations can better prepare for and respond to emerging risks.